title: Strengthening socio-emotional competencies in a school setting: data from the Pyramid project.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Development of socio-emotional competencies is key to children's successful social interaction at home and at school.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study examines the efficacy of a UK primary school-based intervention, the Pyramid project, in strengthening children's socio-emotional competencies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 385 children from seven schools in two UK cities. All children were aged 7-8 years and in school Year 3. Children were screened for socio-emotional difficulties through the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997) and a multi-agency meeting of relevant professionals before being allocated to attend a Pyramid Club intervention (n= 103) or a comparison group (n= 282).
  
  
  METHODS
  A 2 × 2 mixed-model design was used: group (intervention group vs. comparison group) × 2 time points (pre- vs. 12 weeks post-intervention) with repeated measures on the time factor to investigate the impact of the Pyramid Year 3 intervention. Teachers completed the SDQ-T4-16 for all children pre- and post-intervention to measure participants' socio-emotional health status.
  
  
  RESULTS
  As measured by the two SDQ difficulty sub-scales of Emotional and Peer problems and the SDQ strength sub-scale of Prosocial behaviour, post-intervention improvements in the Pyramid attendee group were of greater magnitude than those of the comparison group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Pyramid project intervention improves the socio-emotional health of vulnerable children through promoting positive outcomes as well as reducing socio-emotional deficits. These findings further support the inclusion of a salutogenic approach in promoting children's socio-emotional well-being.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Social Work and Human Sciences, University of West London, UK. maddie.ohl@uwl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Madeleine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ohl
authors.forename: Pauline
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods*; D012574:Schools; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom